The frames of spectacles, such as sunglasses, include portions which surround the lenses, and portions which are hingedly connected on opposite sides to earstems that extend rearwardly around the wearer's ears. Such frames are commonly manufactured of any of a variety of thermoplastic materials which are well known in the art. These thermoplastic materials may be transparent or dyed various colors.
Sunglass frames are typically molded. A very few custom frames are crafted by hand. One such type of custom frame is formed from a plurality of small pieces of wood glued together. By its nature, the handmade manufacturing process for these custom glasses is extremely time consuming and prohibitively expensive to the consumer.
Certain manufacturers utilize computer numerical control (CNC) machines in a portion of the manufacturing process of thermoplastic frames for sunglasses. The frames begin as flat pieces of thermoplastic material and are cut on the CNC machine to form a flat frame shape. After the machining step, the frames are bent, sometimes with the use of heat, to form the final 3-dimensional curvilinear shape which conforms to the head of the wearer. Again, given the complexity of this process, the end cost to the wearer is quite high.
There is therefore a need for a spectacle frame with a custom appearance which is relatively inexpensive to produce.